Smile
by This One Fool
Summary: "I've never seen you before." He smiled at her. Ichi x Ruki and...could it be? Is that...? Yes, that's Ruki x Tensa!


Smile

Another Chapter 423 fic. I can't help it, I'm held in suspense and fascination. Kubo has created a different yet similar situation and I'm held it's in grip – it's like beginning the series all over, but this time with _knowledge_, and this air of sadness and nostalgia hovering over everything. Ah! Glorious. This is can be considered a tie-in (more like a prequel) to _**Help**_, but you don't necessarily have to read one before the other. Any order will do – I just thought you guys might like a little humor with your tragedy. Boy is that an oxymoron or what? Warning! Um, spoiler alert?

I do not own Bleach. As I have said, I'm too interested with what Kubo's is going to come up with.

Let's go!

Ahem, P.S., this might also get kind of weird. But it seemed like a unique idea and I think it was working for me, so I'm going for it anyway. ;)

Rukia's back was more rigid than the chair it rested against. She thought, perhaps, that this was what emotional shock felt like. She felt numb. Her heart was numb, her mind was numb, the tips of her fingers and her legs and her face were numb.

Nothing.

There was nothing any of them could do about any of this. Not even Urahara, who she sometimes believed could do anything he wanted, if he applied a little time (or not) and imagination. Mostly the imagination part.

Ichigo had saved the world – two worlds – from a man who would be god and the grand reward he was given was losing every shred of the magnificent power that he'd been wrapped in since the moment her sword pierced him. No, since the moment he was born.

Ichigo, an ordinary human? She couldn't contemplate the mere idea of it. Before he became to Shinigami, she'd only known him a grand total of six minutes so she didn't know what kind of person ordinary Ichigo was. She doubted it that such a thing existed. It didn't matter if he lost his power – there would never be anything 'ordinary' about Ichigo.

Sado, Inoue, and Ishida all loitered around the clinic idly, bashfully unable to admit that they were waiting to hear some word of Ichigo's recovery. After Karin was becoming too annoyed and Yuzu too stressed out, she sent them home on day nine, promising to call them when he showed even the slightest sign of waking up – something she wasn't going to hold her breath for…metaphorically speaking, of course.

Despite the hardness of the chair and her spine, she did fall asleep eventually, head tilted against the finial post at an awkward and uncomfortable angle which would almost certainly give her an agonizing neck ache when she woke in the morning. Still, Rukia smiled in her sleep, dreaming of days with this boy so much better than this one.

But Rukia didn't wake in the morning – at least, not when the sun was shining. Yuzu left the lamp on the side table on for her, but that wasn't what woke her. It was the strangely familiar reiatsu she felt abruptly enter the room. Rukia jerked awake at the sudden presence and stood up forcefully as her eyes landed on the dark-robed figure standing before Ichigo's bed, standing right beside her. She put a hand on Sode no Shirayuki's hilt, which seemed to strangely pulse with eager, frigid waves of energy.  
>"Who are you?"<p>

He took a step back from the bed to turn and face her, stepping towards as he did so, drawing the hood from over his head and revealing a mass of wildly wavy black hair. Beneath that tangled mass of hair, a relaxed solemn face examined her with curiously gentle eyes that were deeply, penetratingly blue. He was a young man, but those eyes weren't young. Power swathed him like the black robes he wore. Beneath his calm, he would be a demon to fight. She was certain just by looking at him.

Her heart raced. She knew that face! She knew that serious, serene expression. Everything in him seemed familiar to her, somehow.

"I'm a friend." For some reason, his voice reminded her of endless rows of smooth, blue glass. "A close friend of Ichigo's."

She believed him. With eight words, she believed him. It was only her training that told her to remain vigilant, remain suspicious. _Don't be a baka, Rukia._ "I know all of Ichigo's friends." she said coldly. "I've never seen you before."

His eyelids slid down slightly and…

He smiled at her.

Her breath caught in her throat, because she recognized that smile, too. It was the kind of sad smile Ichigo would sometimes give her. _I know you! How do I know you?_ Rukia wanted to cry out. She kept the words in the back of her throat.

"You do know me." he reassured her softly, still smiling that shattering smile. The kind of smile that made Rukia want to yank her beating heart from her chest and hold it out for him: _take it, please!_ It was hard to keep eye contact with him when he smiled that way. "And you've seen me many times before, too. But I'm not surprised you don't recognize me…Kuchiki Rukia."

Her hand clenched on the hilt of Sode no Shirayuki so hard it began to cramp her fingers. "I'm sure I've never met you. How do you know my name, stranger?"

His smile was more sly, easing the ache in her heart. "I never said anything about meeting you, Rukia-chan. You're right – you and I were never formally introduced." He stepped closer to her, almost inappropriately close. He reached out and slid a finger lightly down the sheath of her zanpakuto. She felt her katana's icy energy flare colder and sweeter than she'd ever felt before. His gesture and the soul slayer's reaction sent shivers racing down her spine. "Sode no Shirayuki. Your soul slayer is the most beautiful I've ever encountered before, Rukia-chan. And I've encountered many."

Gritting her teeth at the audacity of this man, Rukia's hand flew to draw Sode no Shirayuki from the sheath. She'd show him how beautiful her zanpakuto could _really_ be – when he was looking out from a column of ice!

A strong thin hand clamped around her wrist and forced her to keep the zanpakuto in its sheath. She gave him a glare as icy as her blade and his other hand buried itself in the back of her blue-black hair, forcing her to look up at him.

He intended to find out what she tasted like, even if his honorable partner didn't have the courage. If his master couldn't keep a part of her, he would.

He smiled.

She gasped.

It sent a funny trembling feeling to her stomach. Rukia suddenly felt weak, as though she couldn't stand up anymore. She wasn't stupid – she could recognize this feeling. It happened when she was around Ichigo more and more: it was desire. And that's what was in his smile.

He kissed her fiercely, like a warrior taking the battlefield. It made her head swim deliciously.

He didn't kiss her, he claimed her.

Conquered her.

_Consumed her._

The fingers wrapped around her wrist splayed possessively over her bare, delicate throat and his grip on her hair loosened so that he could cup her jaw with a gentle, calloused hand.

She tasted like vanilla ice cream. Sweet and smooth.

He tasted like copper. Biting and fierce.

The thought flashed through her mind that perhaps he really was devouring a part of her – maybe even a part of her that she could never get back. He lightly bit her lower lip and she thought: _let him._

The hand on her throat slipped like silk down her chest until it pressed not against her breast, but her heart. That's where it stayed.

They broke apart and tears ran from the corners of her eyes as she took in the redheaded teenager lying on the bed again. _What did I do?_

He didn't even need to ask. He wiped the tears from her cheekbones with his thumbs. "You don't need to look so guilty. You've done nothing wrong."

"How can't you say that?" she cried. "I've –"

His serene face stared back at her and Rukia felt that same pulse of familiarity. "You still can't guess my name, Rukia-chan?"

She stared at him with puzzlement.

His lips made a path from her cheek to her ear. "Kuchiki Rukia." he whispered lowly. "Watashi wa Tensa Zangetsu da."

Her eyes went blank for a moment with surprise. "You…"

He smiled.

"That's right."

"You…you have to say goodbye to him, too." This might possibly be the only being whose sadness was greater than hers. Of course, Rukia never considered that the reason Ichigo's zanpakuto kissed her into oblivion may be because that's what Ichigo himself wanted to do – appallingly obvious though that conclusion may be.

"Yes." The lamplight showed the trail of Tensa's tears clearly. "I tried to stop him from doing this…I tried to protect him…"

"He never listens to anyone." she muttered, understanding his frustration.

"Yes." Tensa agreed. That soul-breaking smile he first gave her was back. "I wanted one last look…I am…sad that we can longer be together. But I am…very proud to have a master as noble as he is. Many are not."

She smiled. She could break a few hearts herself with that smile.

"He is, isn't he?"

~~~  
>And I have a crush on Tensa Zangetsu, can you tell? (fangirl moment plz)<p>

To be fair though, I have a weird crush on Zangetsu no Ossan, too. Maybe I'll give him some fanfic love later, we'll have to see.

Please review if you liked, loved, or hated it.

Lana


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